Lasagna

I really love lasagna. What there not to love? Gorgeous layers of cheese, meat, pasta...sorry, I think I zoned out for a bit there. I was gifted a cookbook with simple American recipes by my friend Bryan a few years ago when I had just started to cook. I was really wary of cooking Italian or anything "American" back then, but this book changed that. So, thanks Bryan.

Lasagna is generally made with some sort of ground meat. Of course, one could avoid the meat altogether and make it with veggies and cheese. I have yet to try that version out. Maybe when I finally take the plunge and turn vegetarian...

I'm using ground chicken in this recipe. I've used ground turkey before so anything works, really.


Ingredients (Serves 8, very easily)
1lb Ground chicken/meat
6 Garlic cloves, minced
1 Onion -finely chopped
1 Tspn Italian Seasoning
Salt to taste
Ricotta Cheese - about 1/2 of a 150z container (I didn't really measure. this depends on how much you put in. )- 1.5 cup
Mozarella - 4-6oz (Again, didn't measure but had an 8oz packet on hand)- Maybe 1.5 cups
Parmesean Cheese - 1/2 cup
Lasagna pasta - about 12 (cook according to directions on box)
Olive Oil - 1tbspn
Marinara (or any Pizza/Tomato) Sauce - 12 oz (give or take; I used store-bought)

Optional : Button Mushrooms (I had to finish a carton before it rotted)

Method:

1. Heat up the olive oil in a pan. To it add the onions and saute for about 3 mins. Add the garlic and italian seasoning. Saute until onions are translucent. Ensure you don't let the garlic burn. If adding mushrooms, add at this point. Also add salt.

2. To the above, add the minced meat. Saute until cooked and begins to brown.

3. Add tomato sauce (marinara) to the pan and bring to a boil. You sauce is now done.

To assemble lasagna, use an appropriate baking utensil and
(i) thin layer of the sauce.
(ii) layer of pasta noodles
(iii) ricotta and mozarella on top of noodles.
(iv) sauce on top of the cheeses
(v) back to (ii) and repeat.

(vi) the last layer should be a layer of pasta noodles. top this off with a generous layer of pamesean cheese.

Baking instructions:
Set oven to 425 and pre-heat for about 5 minutes. Cover your work of layered art and cook for 10 minutes. Then remove the covering and bake for another 10 mins or until the top is a nice golden brown.

That's it! Serve with salad and garlic bread!


excuse the crappy picture again. I really need to get used to my camera.

Tomato Sauce with Atomic Italian Meatballs

I don't eat beef anymore and I avoid Lasagnas, meat sauce, and meatballs in Italian restaurants. But I used to eat beef a long, long time ago and am familiar with the tastes of the above dishes. oh my, so good. Using ground turkey or chicken makes a great substitute in my opinion and I use it to recreate these yummy dishes. I recently bought ground chicken and after making my nuclear sheek kababs, I still had some meat left over. I decided to try out Italian meatballs!
Most meatball recipes I looked up used eggs to bind the meat or perhaps to keep 'em moist. Either way, I'm not a fan of cooking with eggs so my recipe is a little different. I have paired this post with a tomato sauce recipe from LV.

sidenote: If you haven't caught on by now: Atomic implies insane amounts of garlic and nuclear implies insane amounts of garlic AND other spices. I should patent this usage.


Atomic Italian Meatballs: Makes about 10 medium sized meatballs (Approximated the amounts here. since it was my first time making it, I wasn't paying attention to the amounts)

1/2 lb of Ground chicken
1/4-1/2 cup of bread crumbs ( I make my own bread crumbs: normal wheat toasted, ground with italian spices and you got it, garlic powder)
italian seasoning (oregano, basil, thyme, whatever you have on hand) - 1tspn or so
fresh garlic - minced about 5-10 cloves (yea, i was serious about the "atomic" bit)
Garlic + Herb powder - 1/2 tspn (definitely optional at this point ;) )
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil to pan fry the meat balls and about 1-2 tspn to mix in with the meat
Parmesean cheese - 1/4-3/4 cup.

1. Basically, you mix everything thoroughly including the 1-2tspn of olive oil. I let this sit for about 10-15 minutes. Roll into balls of desired size; i kept them medium because I wasn't sure how long they take to cook and i wanted them thoroughly cooked before I added them to my sauce.

2. In a non-stick shallow pan add olive oil to coat bottom and let it heat up on medium heat. Add the meatballs and slow cook them on medium-low. Cover them to ensure they remain moist.

3. After about 10 minutes (give or take) they should be done. I would recommend doing just one test meatball first to taste and make sure that the seasoning is fine.

4. drop into tomato sauce (I used store bought in the above picture) and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Serve over a bed of cooked pasta.


Here is a recipe for homemade tomato sauce from LV:

8 tomatoes (I leave the skin on, but you can remove it too)
1/4C olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 chopped carrot
A handful each: fresh parsley, fresh basil, and fresh oregano--chopped
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4th tsp ground red chilli peppers
1/2 tsp cumin
1 Bay leaf
3 Tb Red wine
1/2 Tb corn starch
1 can tomato paste (I've tried leaving this out, but trust me, put it in)
***Optional: lemon zest, extra carrots, zuchinni, parmesan
****Tip: if you have parmesan rinds, add them in while the sauce is
cooking and scoop them out at the end for extra flavor.

Directions:
1. Marinate the Chef
2. Saute garlic, onion, carrot, bellpepper and bay leaf in the olive
oil in a very large pot.
3. Add all the other ingredients except for the corn starch and tomato paste.
4. Simmer for 2 hours.
5. Mix wine with corn starch and stir into simmering sauce. Add tomato
paste until the sauce looks and tastes right to you.

Balsamic Vinaigrette - Desi Style

Finally a recipe. It's been a long time. In my defense, I've been traveling around parts of India I've never been to and it's been a blast for all of my senses. I'm really tempted to dedicate a post just to my memories and travels in the past couple of months. In time, I think I will.

Now back to food. A couple of my friends here are slowly getting into salads now. It makes me really happy! Fortunately we get some of the ingredients to make some decent vinaigrettes and I'm going to describe the dressing I've been using here for the past few months. Since I'm in India and us Indians can't be buggered [hello british slang] to measure things, this will be a free flow recipe. It's sort of a rap recipe (improvised with no measurements) but with the basics being the same.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Ingredients:
Balsamic Vinegar -1/2 cup
Olive Oil -1/2-3/4 cup
Garlic - finely chopped - 6-10 cloves
Italian spices - dried. Anything and everything seems to be alright (mainly: oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil, marjoram, etc.) Pinches of everything! Remember a little of dried spices goes a long way.
English Mustard - VERY VERY little. I should be using Dijon Mustard, but I couldn't get my hands on it.
Pepper - 1/2 tsp or lesser
Salt (can omit this)

In a jar (which you can close and mix) place the finely chopped garlic, add pinches of the spices you have on hand, pepper, balsamic vinegar, and mustard. to this add the olive oil and mix. Shake the jar/bottle for about a minute. Taste it to ensure the flavours are balanced.

Usually it keeps well for about a month or more (i've used it up within a month) and gets better with time.

Salad:
Ice berg lettuce, Green-leaf lettuce, tomato cubes, onion slices, black olives, slivers of carrots, cubes of cucumbers, slices of capsicum/green bell pepper.

I've also added ripe papaya and apples when available.

For those addicted to non-vegetarianism: Marinate a chicken breast with the salad dressing for about 15 minutes. Then grill it. Once cooked, chop it into cubes and toss along with the veggies.